Deep Dive Into the Retail Personalization Index Top 10: ShoeDazzle

Mike O'Brien

Mike O'Brien

Just like JustFab, ShoeDazzle’s website begins with a style quiz that gives the brand an entrypoint into a personalized customer experience. It makes sense, given that both brands are under TechStyle Fashion Group. “It allows us to personalize the very first webpage that you see,” said Brand President Traci Inglis at this year’s Retail Innovation Conference. “If it’s February in Ohio, you’ll see boots, not sandals. If you say you don’t like high heels, you won’t see them.”

TechStyle made strides in its personalization capabilities over the past year. That’s especially apparent with ShoeDazzle’s performance in this year’s Retail Personalization Index.

Last year, ShoeDazzle tied for 20th place with Nike. On the one hand, ShoeDazzle boasted highly customized My Showroom Section and strong, increasingly-relevant email communications. But on the other, the online retailer’s retargeting and behavior-triggered emails had room to improve. And that, they did.

How ShoeDazzle Stepped Into the Top 10

Today, ShoeDazzle’s retargeting is much stronger. Display and video ads now reference products consumers have looked at or added to their carts. At the same time, ShoeDazzle’s website and email personalization are even better. The commitment to lifecycle optimization, product recommendations based on behavior and use of predictive technology helped the brand secure a perfect score in each category.

It’s especially impressive given TechStyle’s large footprint. Between its different brands, the company sends unique emails to 2.5 million members, utilizing dynamic merchandising, targeted subject lines and even personalized send times based on historic engagement time. On the site, the pages people see depend on their style preferences, user activity and location.

One thing we particularly love about ShoeDazzle is the way the brand blends content and commerce on the blog, The Platform. Products are incorporated into seamlessly incorporated into the content, such as an article about mules that includes three drastically different styles to appeal to different shoppers (and the product pages to each, of course).

Remarkably, ShoeDazzle also lacks a mobile app. That means the brand was ineligible for 15 points…and yet, their overall personalized marketing was strong enough that they were still able to crack the top 10. If ShoeDazzle develops an app, we expect to see them stomp all over the competition next year.